Bishop Matthew Clark: Schools situation demanded decisive action

Many of you are perhaps wondering why a bishop who has written and spoken of his commitment to Catholic schools many times over the years would announce he is closing 13 of them.

Bishop Matthew Clark

Many of you are perhaps wondering why a bishop who has written and spoken of his commitment to Catholic schools many times over the years would announce he is closing 13 of them in Monroe County.

In all sincerity, it is precisely because of my love for our schools and the indelible mark of excellence they have left on our community that I made the decision announced Jan. 18.

Simply put, the financial threat facing our schools was such that if I did not act decisively and with some urgency I could not guarantee the Monroe County Catholic school system’s survival in the years to come. It is entirely possible that if we let this situation go, the whole system would have collapsed.

To those parents who are understandably upset at the decisions and are asking many questions, please know that I share your pain and sadness, and that I have asked a team of our top diocesan officials to reach out to you. We will be holding a series of meetings over the next few weeks at which we will be open to your comments, ideas, proposals and suggestions. We want to listen to you.

It is important you truly understand the situation we were facing, and why I called a task force of 23 people together to help us find solutions:

- We faced a more than $1 million deficit this year, one expected to climb to more than $5 million next year, and continue climbing, if we did not do something to stem the tide.

- Our tuition rate was too high, hurting enrollment and keeping others who could not afford to pay it away.

The task force study made two things quite clear. First of all, we simply could not afford to keep open facilities that were under capacity. Secondly, we had to decrease tuition costs if we were to have any chance of stabilizing enrollment or increasing it. The Center for Governmental Research, which facilitated our task force work, indicated that decisive action was necessary. And the task force, although it was difficult, made its recommendations. Given all I knew, I felt it would be irresponsible not to accept its recommendations.

That doesn’t make it easy. That doesn’t make disappear the pain families displaced by the closings are feeling.

What has been especially hard for me is to think that our children will feel hurt by these decisions. Many are too young to understand financial deficits, statistics, dire projections, and all the data that told us a crisis was looming and action was mandatory.

I do pray that, if it is at all possible, they will be able to stay in Catholic schools. We are making every effort to make room for as many children as we can. We are trying to be very creative in our use of existing space and in ways we might, within appropriate educational guidelines, seat as many students as possible.

I would be remiss here if I did not thank the parents of the schools that are closing – indeed, all parents – for their commitment and energy, as well as profound gratitude to our faculty and staff for the considerable sacrifice they have made to educate our children.

I pray that God will see us through these tough times and that Catholic schools will be blessed with new growth and success in the years to come.

The Most Rev. Matthew. H. Clark is Roman Catholic bishop of Rochester. He contributed this column to the Brighton-Pittsford Post.

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